We simulate constrained dynamics of two species transport across single-file molecular-sized pores such as biomembrane channels and zeolites. We focus on diffusional pumping where one type of particle uses its entropy of mixing to drive another along its chemical potential gradient. Quantitative analyses of rates and efficiencies of transport are plotted as functions of transmembrane potential,...

Biological membrane fusion is a local-point event, extremely fast, and under strict control. Proteins are responsible for the mutual recognition of the fusion partners and for the initiation of biomembrane fusion, and thus determine where and when fusion occurs. However, the central event during membrane fusion is the merger of two membranes, which requires a transient reorganization of membran...

Junyu Yang, Milton E. Brown, Hanshuo Zhang, Mario Martinez, Zhihua Zhao, Srishti Bhutani, Shenyi Yin, David Trac, Jianzhong Jeff Xi, and Michael E. Davis Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, China; Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, Emory University and Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia; State Key Laborat...

Michael A. Lomholt, Bram van den Broek, 3 Svenja-Marei J. Kalisch, Gijs J.L. Wuite, and Ralf Metzler MEMPHYS Center for Biomembrane Physics, Department of Physics and Chemistry, University of Southern Denmark, Campusvej 55, 5230 Odense M, Denmark Department of Physics and Astronomy, Faculty of Sciences, VU University, De Boelelaan 1081, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands Physics of Life Process...

The bending rigidity k(c) of bilayer vesicles self-assembled from amphiphilic diblock copolymers has been measured using single- and dual-micropipet techniques. These copolymers are nearly a factor of 5 greater in hydrophobic membrane thickness d than their lipid counterparts and an order of magnitude larger in molecular weight M(n). The macromolecular structure of these amphiphiles lends insig...

The liquid crystalline model biomembrane system consisting of a stack of interacting membranes is studied in the realistic soft confinement regime by the newly developed Fourier Monte Carlo simulation technique. In this regime experiment and simulations show that the functional form of the fluctuation pressure is more nearly exponential rather than the power law valid for the hard confinement r...

Background to This Study Some glycosphingolipids (GSLs) are known as the receptor molecules for lectins, antibodies, viruses, and so on. The carbohydrate recognition of GSLs is carried out in the situation when GSLs are incorporated in biomembranes. Hakomon et al. proposed that GSLs form clusters in biomembranes and perform their specific functions in such clusters (1). However, the mechanisms ...

Lipid-based nanocarriers have been extensively investigated for drug delivery due to their advantages including biodegradability, biocompatibility, nontoxicity, and nonimmunogenicity. However, the shortcomings of traditional lipid-based such as insufficient targeting, capture by reticuloendothelial system, fast elimination limit efficiency therapeutic efficacy. Therefore, a series multifunction...